How Does Cycling Impact My Running?

A competitive cyclists finds it hard to breathe when transitioning to running.

I am a competitve cyclist and I mountain bike as well as ride on the road. I don’t get as out of breath doing these things as most of the people I ride with, and some are state competition level, but when I try and run, I'll go for about a 1/4 of a mile and my breathing will get hard, my throat closes up, and it gets kind of wheezy. I went to a doctor about it and he said I had some mild bronchitis. I took some meds and that was that, but I still find it hard to breathe while running. What do I do?

Based on the symptoms you describe, you were absolutely right to seek medical advice. If these symptoms persist, I encourage you to visit your doctor again. Perhaps one that specializes in respiratory issues might provide you with more insight.

On another note, health issues aside, transitioning from cycling to running can actually be more challenging than one might think. On the surface, running and cycling appear to be very similar. They are both primarily aerobic forms of exercise that use the large muscles of the lower body in a sustained and rhythmical manner. However, there are some differences that may play a role in your experience.

From your description, it sounds as though cycling has given you a very high level of fitness since you are riding with competitive level cyclists. Through your cycling, you have attained a high level of cardio-respiratory conditioning. This is a general fitness adaptation, which typically gives athletes a low resting heart rate and a high lung capacity. Your cycling has also given you a very specific type of fitness, which pertains directly to the exact muscles and muscle fibers recruited, movement patterns, and energy systems used while cycling.

The Principle of Specificity, as defined by the American College of Sports Medicine, states, "Sports training must be relevant and appropriate to the particular sport an individual is training for in order to produce a training effect. For an athlete to become better in a specific sport or a specific skill, the athlete must perform that sport or skill." Simply put, this means to be a good cyclist, you must cycle and to be a good runner, you must run. The specific conditioning achieved through one sport, will not directly transfer to another sport.

Research indicates that running requires a greater oxygen uptake than cycling does at comparable intensity levels. Most likely, this is because cycling is independent of body mass and running is not. The greater oxygen demand of running may play a role in your respiratory issues since your difficulties occur while running and not when cycling.

In addition to this greater oxygen demand, there will also be a difference in your lactate threshold level between these two sports. Lactate threshold (LT) is the workload at which lactate begins to accumulate in the blood. Your cycling conditioning has provided you with a higher LT on the bike, but not for running. Being new to running, you will reach your LT at a lower intensity level until you attain conditioning specific to running.

Because of your competitive cycling background, you may be inclined to begin your run training at too high of a level. Begin your running career as a beginner. Start slow and go easy with short increments of time or distance and build gradually. Make sure you warm up thoroughly and then ease into a run pace. If you still experience breathing issues after a thorough warm up and an easy run pace, be sure and visit your physician again.

All the best to you!

Susan Paul, MS

Susan Paul has coached more than 2,000 runners and is an exercise physiologist and program director for the Orlando Track Shack Foundation. For more information, visit www.trackshack.com.

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